Ed Sheeran has revealed he was once offered the unprecedented opportunity to perform the “first gig in space”.
The 34-year-old musician, who recently released his latest album Play, made the disclosure during an appearance on Scott Mills’ BBC Radio 2 breakfast show.
His comments came in response to a question from Mills, who had noted Mariah Carey’s recent reluctance to consider space travel.
Sheeran said: “I was offered to go to space a while ago, you know? And it terrifies me, I want to go to space when it’s like flying to France and 40,000 people have done it, and you can just book it online.
“I don’t want to be a guinea pig for that, because it still is dangerous.
“There’s places on this planet that I haven’t been to, I’ve never been to Greenland, I would love to go to Greenland, there’s places on this planet I would far rather go to than space.”
He continued: “It was talk about doing a gig there, doing a first gig in space, I’m sure lots of people got that email, but, yeah, it terrifies me.”
“Mate, I ain’t doing it, I’ve got kids, like, I’m not going to risk that for a Guinness World Record something or other. I’m not going to risk my kids not having a dad.”
It comes after the Suffolk-raised singer said he had plans for a posthumous album called Eject in the event of his death, and also revealed he was “just about to move to America” in an interview with The 2 Johnnies Podcast.
Sheeran also spoke about his friend Lewis Capaldi returning to the stage after a break following his performance at Glastonbury Festival in 2023, which saw him struggle to manage the symptoms of his Tourette syndrome, receiving help from the audience to sing his hit song Someone You Loved.
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He told The Scott Mills Breakfast Show: “I haven’t seen Lewis on tour, but we have been speaking a fair bit.
“I’m really happy for him – I really think that him taking time off was the best thing for him and his health. He has actually come back into it like reinvigorated and really loving it again, which I don’t think he was on his second record.”
The Lego House singer was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, but moved to Framingham Earl in Suffolk as a child and has owned a minority share in nearby football club Ipswich Town since last year, with the club being relegated from the Premier League at the end of the 2024-2025 season.
He has had 14 UK number one singles and eight UK number one albums, with the singer’s best-known songs including The A Team, Sing and Don’t.
